Book to read – From the Great Transformation to the Great Financialization

In her new book, Kari Polanyi Levitt considers the insights of her father Karl Polanyi’s classic The Great Transformation to propose a challenging discussion on the contemporary global financial crisis in the perspective of the financialization of Western capitalism.

In Part I, Karl Polanyi’s ideas are explained and discussed in relationship to the contributions of his contemporaries, mainly Friederich von Hayek and John Maynard Keynes. Her essay on Culture and Economy, that includes the ‘three fallacies of economics’, should be required reading. Her critique of contemporary Economics is linked to the objection to the methodological individualism of the neoclassical approach. Indeed, in her view, the representation of the so called rational economic man does not apprehend the multiple set of issues related to human nature and human needs.read more